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Greens Treasury spokesperson, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, welcomes the passage of Labor’s private Member’s Bill to lower the tax transparency threshold and is pleased to note that the Senate accepted the two Greens-proposed amendments.

Greens Treasury spokesperson, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, says that the Minerals Council report into the taxation paid by mining companies in Australia shows that the lobby group cannot be trusted to enter into public debate in good faith and only serves to cement the reputation of corporate Australia as self-serving charlatans.

Greens Treasury Spokesperson, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, has called on the Government to call in the UK Ambassador to ask why the UK continues to allow negligent levels of tax secrecy in their Overseas Territories, as exposed by the Paradise Papers.

“Australia needs to let the UK know that we can no longer tolerate its overseas territories, including Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands, being used by Australian citizens or companies operating in Australia for aggressive tax avoidance and potential tax evasion strategies.

Greens Treasury spokesperson welcomes the announcement of a government review into potential rorting of the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax and the Commonwealth Royalty regime. Yesterday in Senate question time we asked the Government to consider doing this.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “The Government has known about potential rorting by big fossil fuel companies of the PRRT and the oil and gas royalty regimes for years. Everyone should pay their fair share.

“The Greens have been raising questions about the integrity of these schemes in the last parliament and in this one.

Greens Treasury spokesperson, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson says it is astonishing that in a week the Senate is squabbling over just tens of millions in revenue from backpackers, that the ANAO have just released a bombshell report (LINK HERE) saying that oil and gas companies may have wrongly claimed billions in tax deductions.

The Senate has voted to repeal the Turnbull government's so-called "kidnap law," which passed only last month and exempted private companies - with turnover of $100 million dollars or more - from having to disclose their tax affairs.

"The passage of this Greens amendment is a big victory for the community - we've improved a multinational tax avoidance bill so that it also improves the financial disclosure and tax transparency of big companies," said Greens Leader Richard Di Natale.

The Greens say any change to Australia's tax system must be progressive, correcting rising inequality and acting on global warming.

"The whole point of tax is to raise the revenue we need to pay for the Australian society we want: caring, innovative, healthy, and protected from the impacts of global warming" said Greens Leader Christine Milne.

"That means ending taxpayer support of polluting fossil fuels; it means actually collecting the tax owed by corporate Australia and multi-nationals, and it means closing tax loopholes for the richest among us.

The Greens have announced a new policy to make superannuation more equitable and raise $10 billion over the forward estimates. ‘A super system for everyone' will replace the current flat superannuation tax rate of 15% with a progressive system that is closely based on a person's marginal income tax rate.

"Superannuation in Australia has become a tax haven for the wealthy. It should be a way of delivering a comfortable retirement for everyone," Greens Leader Christine Milne said.